Quiet, surprise admission coming up… I have been humbled by
\none of my industry contacts, who sent to me a “best of” CD from a
\ngroup I had never heard of.<\/p>\n
I will pause now so that the loyal members of the Pierce Posse
\ncan grab their smelling salts.<\/p>\n
I was shocked, too, I can’t lie. Here was a CD from a late
\n’70s-early ’80s funk group, Sun, that I honestly can’t ever
\nremember hearing as a child. (Of course, I was in grade school when
\nByron Bird and crew were at their peak of success, and disco had
\ninvaded almost every aspect of life at that time.) Here was a group
\nthat had surprised then-struggling acts like the Commodores by
\nhitting the big time with their first single, “Wanna Make Love
\n(Come Flick My Bic)”.<\/p>\n
Problem is, acts like the Commodores and Earth, Wind And Fire
\nare still remembered, while Sun set back into obscurity after their
\nglory days ended around 1982. But this also leaves the door open
\nfor a whole new generation to discover them, even to hear how some
\ngroups like Boyz II Men might have found influence in them. The
\nrecently released
\nThe Greatest Hits<\/i> offers that opportunity, and despite an
\noccasionally dated sound, the end product is still rather
\nenjoyable.<\/p>\n
The major hit, “Wanna Make Love (Come Flick My Bic)”, is
\nsurprisingly still fresh as it was in 1976. The use of the talkbox
\nby Roger Troutman is one of the more innovative uses of the device
\nI’ve heard in years of reviewing music, and actually found myself
\nlooking forward to hearing more of Troutman’s talkbox work as the
\ndisc rolled on. What is also intriguing is the idea of mentioning a
\ncommercial product so prominently in a song; these days, even if
\nthe reference was flattering, you know there’d be some asshole
\ncorporate lawyer with a cease-and-desist order in his hand the day
\nthe album came out.<\/p>\n
In fact, quite a bit of the funk here has maintained its crisp
\nsound despite the passage of some two decades. Cuts like “Radiation
\nLevel,” “Super Duper Super Star,” “They’re Calling For More” and
\n“Jammin’ In Brazil” all are locks to have the listener tapping
\ntheir foot to the beat, if they’re not lifted out of their
\nBarcalounger to start dancing. When you hear songs like these, you
\nhave to wonder why Sun have not remained a household name.<\/p>\n
The cuts where I could hear sounds similar to Boyz II Men were
\nthe slower, more introspective works, like “I Had A Choice” and
\n“Baby I Confess”. While these might not have been my personal
\nfavorites, hearing a possible influencing factor on some of today’s
\nmusic was rather fascinating.<\/p>\n
The one drawback to some of Sun’s music is that it seems to drag
\non, even if the songs themselves aren’t any longer than the others
\non
\nThe Greatest Hits<\/i>. Some cuts like “Sun Is Here” sound almost
\ntentative, while others like “Light Of The Universe” and “Reaction
\nSatisfaction (Jam Ya’ll: Funk It Up)” just don’t click for me.<\/p>\n
Another drawback to the overall package is that the disc doesn’t
\npresent Sun chronologically, nor does it offer easy to reach
\ninformation as to when each song came out. A. Scott Galloway’s
\nliner notes do help, but you really have to search them to find out
\ninformation about the tracks.<\/p>\n
Despite these criticisms,
\nThe Greatest Hits<\/i> provides more enjoyment than any skeptic
\nmight think possible, and it serves as an interesting introduction
\nto a band that we probably should know better than names like
\nVanilla Ice and Milli Vanilli. Sun was a band that helped shape not
\nonly the world of funk, but they also laid the ground for more
\nmodern R&B acts – and for that, they should be grateful.<\/p>\n
If you lived through the era when Sun was high in the sky of
\npopularity, this one will cause you to flash back to the days of
\nbell-bottoms. For members of Generation X like myself,
\nThe Greatest Hits<\/i> is an interesting slice of musical history
\n– proving that even an experienced critic has a lot to learn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7495],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39200","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sun","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39200"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39200"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}